Friday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
BUSTED: Students’ rights
Underage drinking is a bad thing.
If we start by saying that, per
haps the rest of our words can be
taken in context. We at the Emer
ald, as well as the University and
the Eugene Police Department, be
lieve that young adults must learn
to, when legally allowed, use soci
ety’s most prevalent legal intoxi
cant responsibly.
How, then, does a society go
about encouraging responsible, le
gal use, and how does it best pun
ish illegal use? The University’s
and the EPD’s tactics strike us as
ineffective and neglectful of stu
dents’ rights.
For the encouragement aspect,
the University works in conjunc
tion with the EPD to provide edu
cation focusing on the risks of un
derage alcohol use. There are
safety awareness programs with
student groups and the Greek sys
tem, discussions during Intro
Ducktion and the recently created
BUSTED program, which allows
those with minor in possession ci
tations to have their police record
wiped clean after taking a Univer
sity class. There are pros and cons
to the BUSTED program, but edu
cation about the Constitutional
rights of legal adults age 18 to 20 is
overlooked.
On the punishment side, the
University has a zero-tolerance
policy for underage alcohol use in
the campus area, and after the last
University riots in October 1998,
the EPD instituted its “party pa
trol” every Friday and Saturday
night to make pre-emptive strikes
at those who host friends of all
ages with alcohol present. Punish
ment has been increasing in recent
years, sometimes at the expense of
students’ rights, while the educa
tion factor is clearly not doing
enough.
The University should be ap
plauded for instituting the BUSTED
program. Young adults make mis
takes, and offering them a second
chance without marring their per
manent record is a good thing.
And perhaps having to sit
through lectures and write papers
about the risks and responsibility of
alcohol use will have an effect. But
it can also seem like an easy way
out. And simply offering the class
begs the question: At an education
al institution focused on reducing
underage drinking, why is the basic
BUSTED class not required for
freshmen, with an advanced level
available for those charged with an
MIP?
With the laudation done, we can
say the zero-tolerance policy and
the party patrol are not having the
desired effect. Holding up the act
of drinking as taboo will not dis
courage underage use in a society
that constantly glorifies the intoxi
cated state. And the party patrol
plays on society’s current infatua
tion with militaristic policing in
order to write tickets — tickets that
are clearly not helping. In 1997,
505 MIP tickets were written. For
the 1999-2000 school year, the
number of tickets in the campus
area alone was 1,118. Some of the
increase can be attributed to the in
creased patrols, but where is the
deterrent effect?
Part of the EPD’s party patrol
duty is to do pre-emptive keg
checks. This means that when
someone buys a keg and indicates
where and when the keg will be
tapped, the EPD checks this list
and shows up at the house early to
find out if the keg has been prema
turely tapped and if there might be
something illegal going on. What
would we say if every time some
one purchased an anarchist book,
they had to write down their name
and address and the police could
show up — just to see if maybe
something illegal was happening
yet? That sounds awfully militaris
tic, and it can happen militaristi
cally, playing on students’ lack of
knowledge of their rights.
“Students,” says Ilona Koleszar
of the ASUO Legal Services, “are
incredibly interested in their
rights.”
Koleszar is an independent con
tractor employed by the ASUO.
Koleszar says the Legal Services
and Office of Student Advocacy,
located in 334 EMU, is, as far as
she knows, “the only place where
students are given their constitu
tional rights, if they ask.”
Koleszar explains that students
come to her, fazed by a potential
violation of their rights.
“They’re genuinely offended
when a cop is climbing through
their window, after being refused
entry at the door, because they
have a keg on the premises,”
Koleszar says. “Why are the police
going to that door? Is this a com
munity caretaking function?”
The University, as caretaker of
young adults for a few years,
should be informing students of
their rights. But there is no formal
University program offering this
information. This from an institu
tion of higher learning?
Koleszar works to be sure that
students do know their rights. And
she is often chastised, as she and
the Emerald were on local TV sta
tion KVAL earlier this school year,
for giving students the knowledge
of their rights to protect them in a
situation when they have chosen
to drink illegally. We’re not, and
she’s not, condoning illegal behav
ior. Koleszar talks about students’
responsibilities as students, citi
zens and humans, as well as talk
ing about their rights.
But students age 18 to 20 are le
gal adults. They can make choices
for themselves. If they choose to do
something illegal, they should be
informed of their rights under the
Constitution so that they can make
the choice of how best to conduct
themselves when the party patrol
comes knocking on their doors. To
deny them that is an outrage and
will only serve to further alienate
students from police — which is
what led to the University rioting
in the first place.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Joining the mainstream doesn’t mean losing identity
Mi DIARY OF A
MALCONTENT
MICHAEL J. KLECKNER
“Sometimes I feel like I can’t even sing /
I’m very scared for this world / I’m very
scared for me.” REM wrote that in “You Are
the Everything,” off 1988’s “Green.” It res
onated around my head this morning as I
rode to school.
I’m getting closer to graduation, and I’m
getting closer and closer to joining the
mainstream headlong. I’m just a little
scared.
I’ve spent the last 28 years of my life
holding strong beliefs that are left of center,
and I intend to continue doing so. But it’s
easier to say that when you work a crappy
service job somewhere, and you have the
time and ability to pull back and say,
protest the Gulf War in San Francisco, or
spend weeks working on an idealistic hip
pie ’zine to distribute at the Burning Man
Festival. It’s even easy now to skip classes
and go march in the streets of Seattle
against corporate globalization.
When I graduate, however, I fully intend
to get a mainstream job at a major daily
somewhere, going about the business of
putting out the mainstream news to a main
stream audience. Sure, I can push the enve
lope a little, but what of protesting? Not
supposed to do it. Compromises journalis
tic integrity. What about publishing my
own ’zine of leftist dogma and rants? Not
supposed to do it. Most newspapers want
you to work only for them. Sort of an intel
lectual property thing.
What will be left of me and my hopes for
a better world where people respect human
differences, where people work with con
trol of the fruits of their labors and where
people enjoy each moment of life, instead
of waiting to enjoy life at some fictional lat
er date? Will f just be absorbed into the
mainstream, unable to effect any change?
What’s the typical college answer to any
pressing question? Talk to an adviser. So I
did. I spoke with Pam Cytrynhaum. She
gave me a pep talk that helped me remem
ber the excitement of fighting for the good.
She told me stories about covering racial
injustice in the court systems of Louisiana
at a newspaper that wasn’t necessarily sym
pathetic. She reminded me that one-on-one
interactions with people are incredibly ef
fective at producing social change.
“Get in to where the damage is being
done,” she said, her hands clutching the air
as if to take social injustice by the shoul
ders and give it a good shake. Her advice
continued, her energy unflagging even first
thing in the morning. Be vigilant. Pick your
battles. Live every aspect of your life
through your beliefs. Deconstruct every
word of what you hear. “These things can
be small, but the effect is massive.”
By the end of the conversation, I was ani
mated and upbeat again. Thanks. Pam. I
found the rest of the day’s interviews and
conversations a little easier, and I tried to
remind myself to push the envelope with
everyone, everywhere.
I guess, no matter what, if I retain my
ideals and I remember the urgency of
youth, I can make whatever I want out of a
mainstream experience. Or maybe I’ll dis
cover that the mainstream isn’t what I want
(after I pay off my college loans) and work
for an alternative weekly paper or a leftist
organization that shares my ideals. Maybe
my ideals and the real world can come to
gether in some productive way - if I don’t
hold a preconceived notion that the main
stream world won’t allow my kind of
change.
After all, just two songs later on “Green,”
REM writes, “This is my life, and / This is
my time. /1 have been given the freedom to
do as I see fit. / It’s high time I razed the
walls that I’ve / constructed.”
Not happy with
THE WAy LIFE IS
HEADING? THEN
ALL YOU HAVE TO
DO IS...
Lower
your
STANDARDS!!!